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Earlier on this story24 Oct: Israeli Channel 12 Poll Shows Gadi Eizenkot Camp 52 Seats, Netanyahu Camp 50, Arab Parties 142 more

Israeli Politicsupdated 25m ago3 min read

Exit Polls Show Gadi Eisenkot Bloc Leads Israel Election, Netanyahu Bloc Falls Short Of Majority

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Exit polls show no bloc reaches 61 seats, yielding a likely coalition negotiation. Eisenkot-led bloc leads by slim margin, with Arab parties projected to 17–18 seats.

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Deadlock After Exit Polls

Exit polls released by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan showed a bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot winning 53 seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc with 50 seats, with neither bloc reaching the 61 seats needed for an outright majority government. The ABC live coverage said voter turnout stood at 77.77% at 22:00, surpassing the 70.6% recorded at the same time in 2022 elections, and it described the race as so tight that it was not clear who could form a government.

The BBC said exit polls showed a very close race between Netanyahu and Eisenkot, with neither achieving the parliamentary majority needed to form a government, and it noted that estimates shifted as the night progressed. The BBC also said the elections were held on Tuesday, the first since the October 7, 2023 attacks and the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, amid internal political divisions and criticisms of Netanyahu over security failures preceding the attacks and his handling of the war.

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Leaders Trade Claims

Gideon Saar said the opposition’s celebrations were “premature,” and he added that “One thing seems fairly clear: Likud is the largest party in Israel,” after exit polls indicated the opposition bloc could win more seats than Netanyahu. Gadi Eisenkot told supporters that the exit polls show “total distrust” toward Benjamin Netanyahu, and he promised to “act immediately to implement the will of the people, replace Netanyahu’s government and establish a Zionist mobilization government as soon as possible.”

Yair Lapid described the Netanyahu bloc’s result as a “ crushing defeat,” saying “It’s a total collapse and the public told them to go home,” as the BBC framed the race as close but without a clear winner. Netanyahu vowed to form a new right-wing government without declaring victory, telling his supporters in Jerusalem: 'We must form a strong right-wing government,' and he stressed that 'It is not appropriate that there be a government backed by Arab parties.'

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Arab Votes and Next Steps

Al Jazeera projected that Israel’s Arab parties could win a record combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset through the Joint List and Ra’am, and it said the Joint List was winning over 9 percent of votes with more than one-third of votes counted. Mansour Abbas told Israel’s Channel 12 that “With the numbers we have now, there is no government,” and he said he hoped the final election results would allow the anti-Netanyahu bloc to reach the 61 seats required to form a government.

The BBC said Netanyahu pledged a right-wing government without Arab parties, while it reported that Arab participation was a major development and that polls predicted the United Arab List (Ra’am) led by Mansour Abbas and the Joint List led by Yousef Jabareen would win between 17 and 18 seats. The BBC added that preliminary results were expected on October 28 and that official results were to be announced on November 4, while it said counting of about 600,000 absentee ballots, mostly from military voters, would not be completed before Thursday.

Reporting for this sectionAl JazeeraBBC